Before kicking off NFL’s 2022 season, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus likened the league to a speeding “freight train” that only gets bigger and faster every year.
At the quarter pole of the season, McManus appears to be as talented at predictions as his star analyst Tony Romo.
CBS is off to its best NFL start in 12 years, with the “NFL on CBS” game telecasts averaging 18.559 million viewers so far this season.
The network’s late Sunday afternoon broadcast of the Green Bay Packers’ 27-24 overtime victory over the New England Patriots at venerable Lambeau Field averaged a whopping 24.647 million viewers.
That was up 8% from last season’s comparable telecast. It marked CBS’s most-watched Week 4 game window since the network returned to the NFL rotation in 1998.
Meanwhile, Paramount+, which streams live local-market games, is on pace for its most-streamed NFL season ever.
During Week 4, the platform scored double-digit year-over-year growth in households, minutes and average minute audience (AMA).
![Former NFL Coache Jon Gruden have a laugh while attending an NFL training camp session ten at the Miller Electric Center, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]](https://frontofficesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/USATSI_26781802_168422351_lowres-scaled-e1784132043881.jpg?quality=80&w=300)
